Disclaimer: This is the English avatar (not exactly a translation, though close) of a Spanish-language blog. I am not a native English speaker, so I would ask readers to bear kindly with this attempt (possibly too bold) and the mistakes it will entail and to accept the apologies for them I offer in advance here.




martes, 18 de diciembre de 2007

Official Opening...

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At last, I've given in.

I' ve started a blog too. It's just a whim, without reasons nor clear goals. Which I find comforting. With no other expectation than passing some time and writing just for myself, there can be neither duty nor frustration. It's just as simple, or as complex, as feeling like storing somewhere whatever goes through my mind in relation to the practice of Kayak Touring. Although, knowing me, I suspect it may not be the only topic that will show up here.

Kayak Touring is also, possibly more generally, known as Sea Kayaking. However, I live almost smack in the center of Spain. About as far from the ocean as one can be in this country. And I'm coming to realize that I paddle in freshwater more often than in the brine (and, I fear, in my mind more often than in water of any kind). Fact of life, I'm afraid...

Semantics, aside, the thing, at least for me, consists of using a kayak to gain access to special places and moments. That's it. To me, that typically happens through contemplation and fulfilled curiosity rather than, let's say, an adrenalin discharge. It's not that I actively shy away from what may be called "action". It's simply that I tend to like my "action" as a mean to some end rather than pursuing it for its own sake.

Starting this blog in these dates has been wholly unintentional, but I realize that it's now about a year that thanks to the Kayak de Mar forum and the generosity of Félix, their previous owner, I acquired boat, paddle and spraydeck. It was not the beginning, as it had all started quite a while before, but it was, without a doubt, a beginning.

Like this post.


THE IMAGE
It's reasonably clear to me that blogs sport images, don't they? In this area, I will have to resort to the talent and generosity of others. In an attempt to make my rants a tad more palatable, I've selected this picture from Alaska in the 1910's because it shows a kayak of a type of proven seaworthiness, fine craftmanship and, to my eyes at least, elegant (I don't think the photo does full justice to the boat). If I've got it right, kayaks such as this were used in the Cape Espenberg area of the Seward Peninsula, in the Bering Strait. But, most of all, I've chosen this image because my kayak produces in me the same expression theirs has elicited in those kids. It may not always be immediately apparent from the outside, but, inside, that's just the look on my face.

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